User:BhuvanaMeenakshi(CIS-A2K)/pr2020
Wikiorientation at Dr.GR Damodaran College of Science
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What
The Wikiorientation was a brief session on introducing the Wikimedia projects to a batch of 350 students from Arts and Science department of Dr.GR Damodharan College of Science. The session had 50% of female participation who actively took part in the discussions and also I briefed about the Wiki projects focused for women viz., Women In Red, WikiLoves Women, Wiki Women for Women Well Being (WWWW) etc. The key issues of women working on technology in a structured environment (such as an educational institution in this case) were discussed and it was found that almost 60% of the students were interested in non/less coding contributions/subjects.
Why
This session was part of "Hour of Code", an International event celebrated across the globe to encourage students to develop their knowledge on Computer Science. The main objective of the session was to make the students aware about the areas of Wiki they can work on and also to gather feedback on the Gender Gap research which is currently in progress.
"Bhuvana, you have motivated and encouraged students to contribute to society through Wikimedia, the knowledge sharing platform. You also gave insights on opportunities in Wikimedia community and the efforts Wikimedia is taking to bridge the gender gap. This was very informative and an eye-opener session.Many female students have registered themselves in Wikimedia. We thank for your presence in our campus and delivering such a thought provoking session."-Dr.G.Radhamani, Director
When & where
The session happened at Dr.GR Damodharan College of Science, Coimbatore on 6-7 December 2019.
How
A day long briefing about the Wikimedia projects was discussed followed by an awareness session on the "Bridging Gender Gap" research was presented. A feedback on the same was also collected from the students who participated.
Learning:
The following observations were made from the session was that a necessity to build guidelines for initiating a Wikiclub was figured out.
Follow-up activity/future plans:
- Analyse how to sustain the women contributors after they graduate out of the college.
Links
Press coverage about the event can be seen at Desathin Nambikai , The Covai mail news , Prime Time Tamil , Covai news and Updatenews360.com
Bridging Gender Gap research
editWhat
Bridging gender gap research is focussed on redefining the gender gap and bias with respect to the Indian language Wikimedia communities. Studying the previous research works which were done globally and locally showed results on the need to continue a potential module of research with the current Wikimedia contributors and communities across India.
How
The methodology involved interviewing 11 female contributors from Wikimedia Indian language communities and English.
Work done so far
The methodology and research questions for the research study was finalized over the last six months. The interviews with 11 women contributors from eight Indian and English language Wikimedia communities gave a variety of results that were compiled and observations were analysed. The selection of the interviewees was based on their contributions and involvement in Gender Gap projects.
"I'm really excited to learn that CIS A2K is taking initiatives to work on the subject of gender gap. It is much required and the effort is well appreciated. I personally experienced that women are more comfortable in a safe and friendly space, and that is why we were able to gather more information during women Train the Trainer program as compared to any other event. From my experience, I have seen that surveys aren't an ideal way of gathering information about sensitive subjects, but this initiation would hopefully get better with time and would lead to planning some activities to bridge the gap. In addition to this, I'd also like to appreciate the way you conduct the interviews. All the best"- Manavpreet Kaur, Punjabi Wikimedia
Learning
The following includes the categorization of the interview results which was conducted so far:
- Project areas of contribution
- Awareness of gender gap and bias
- Creating safe community spaces
- Challenges of access and participation in online and offline spaces
- Metrics to understand/improve sustainable participation of women
- Awareness on community health
Follow-up
- The next phase of the research will look at consolidating the observations from the fieldwork in the form of a final report.
Indian Women in Science Edit-a-thon
editWhat
This event was aimed at creating articles on Indian Women in Science and is the fourth iteration of this team to gather around to create articles related to women on English Wikipedia. There were new learners too who learnt and contributed at this event. There were 11 participants from 4 different languages attended the event both by means of online and offline.
Why
The event was mainly focussed on bridging the content/data gap on women in science.
When & where
The event was held at JNCASR, Bangalore on 31 August 2019 with collaboration of CIS-A2K.
How
There were two lightning talks about the lower representation of the content on women scientists on Wiki and a basic training session on developing content for Wikidata was also conducted. The event page can be seen here.
Learning
Follow-up
- As this forum has many researchers and scientists present in various field works, more edit-a-thons focussed on female researchers and scientists are to be conducted in association with the institution.